• 천문학회지
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• 제36권3호
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• pp.189-212
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• 2003

I review the current status of understanding when, how long, and how giant elliptical galaxies formed, focusing on the globular clusters. Several observational evidences show that massive elliptical galaxies formed at z > 2 (> 10 Gyr ago). Giant elliptical galaxies show mostly a bimodal color distribution of globular clusters, indicating a factor of $\approx$ 20 metallicity difference between the two peaks. The red globular clusters (RGCs) are closely related with the stellar halo in color and spatial distribution, while the blue globular clusters (BGCs) are not. The ratio of the number of the RGCs and that of the BGCs varies depending on galaxies. It is concluded that the BGCs might have formed 12-13 Gyr ago, while the RGCs and giant elliptical galaxies might have formed similarly 10-11 Gyr ago. It remains now to explain the existence of a gap between the RGC formation epoch and the BGC formation epoch, and the rapid metallicity increase during the gap (${\Delta}t{\approx}$ 2 Gyr). If hierarchical merging can form a significant number of giant elliptical galaxies > 10 Gyr ago, several observational constraints from stars and globular clusters in elliptical galaxies can be explained.

• 천문학회보
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• 제45권1호
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• pp.32.2-32.2
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• 2020

Massive Compact Elliptical Galaxies (MCEGs) found in the local universe are as massive as normal galaxies but extremely compact (M∗ > 1011 Msun, Reff < 1.5 kpc). They are considered to be the relics of red nugget galaxies found at high redshift. They are not likely to have undergone many mergers, keeping their original mass and size. Moreover, it is expected that they host a dominant population of red (metal-rich) globular clusters rather than blue (metal-poor) ones. Indeed, Beasley et al. (2018) found that the color distribution of the cluster system of NGC 1277 is unimodal, showing only a red population. However, NGC 1277 is the only case whose cluster system was studied among MCEGs. In this study, we investigate globular cluster systems of 14 nearby MCEGs with a homogeneous data set of HST/WFC3 F814W/F160W archive images. We detect tens to hundreds of globular clusters in each galaxy and examine their color distributions. Surprisingly, the fractions of red globular clusters are similar to those of normal galaxies, and are much lower than that of NGC 1277. We additionally obtain Gemini/GMOS-N g'r'i' images of PGC 70520, one of the 14 nearby MCEGs, to detect more globular clusters from deeper and wider images. We will discuss the results from the Gemini data combined with the results from the HST data in relation with the formation of MCEGs.

• 천문학논총
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• 제15권spc1호
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• pp.1-13
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• 2000

We review the early historical developement of astronomical spectrographs, properties of emission line spectra of HII regions in spiral galaxies, and absorption line features of galactic globular clusters. Emission line spectra of HII regions within three spiral galaxies NGC 300, NGC 1365, and NGC 7793, which were observed from AAT/IPCS, had been analysed, and we discuss the abundances of elements in HII regions and the radial abundace gradients through the galaxies. The radial UBV color variations of two globular clusters, NGC 1851 and NGC 2808, were examined for correlations with radial variations of several absorption lines in the integrated spectra, which were obtained from SAAO 74 inch telescope and image tube spectrograph. Nine giant star's spectra in NGC 3201 were also obtained and analysed for the radial abundance gradients in the globular cluster. The results show that the presence of a radial color gradient in a globular cluster is correlated with the presence of abundance gradients. Finally, we suggest some scientific programs for the new high dispersion spectrograph, which will be installed to the BOAO 1.8m telescope.

• 천문학회보
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• 제41권2호
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• pp.30.3-31
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• 2016

The M81 Group is the nearest among the known groups of galaxies. HI maps show that all main galaxies of this group are interacting, indicating that this group is in the active phase of formation. On the other hand, wide field imaging shows that globular cluster candidates are found not only in the member galaxies but also between the galaxies in this group. In this study we present preliminary results based on MMT/Hectospec spectroscopy of the globular cluster candidates in this group. We find that the intragroup globular clusters have mostly low metallicity, while the globular clusters in M81 have mostly high metallicity. We will discuss the implication of this result and the kinematics of the globular clusters in relation with the formation history of the M81 Group.

• 천문학회보
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• 제38권2호
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• pp.37.2-37.2
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• 2013

Recently it turns out that simple-looking elliptical galaxies and lenticular galaxies are more complex and intriguing than expected. One of the most surprising and intriguing findings in extragalactic studies during the last two decades is a discovery that color distribution of the globular clusters in these galaxies is bimodal, suggesting that there are two subpopulations: blue and red globular clusters. We present a determination of the two-dimensional shape parameters of the blue and red globular cluster systems (GCSs) in a large number of bright elliptical galaxies and lenticular galaxies. The position angles of both and red GCSs show a correlation with those of the stellar light distribution, showing that the major axes of the GCSs are well aligned with those of their host galaxies. However, the shapes of the red GCSs show a tight correlation with the stellar light distribution as with the rotation property of their host galaxies, while the shapes of the blue GCSs do much less. These provide clear geometric evidence that the origins of the blue and red globular clusters are distinct and that these galaxies may have dual halos: a blue (metal-poor) halo and a red (metal-rich) halo. These two halos show significant differences in metallicity, structure, and kinematics, indicating that they are formed in two distinguishable ways. The red halos might have formed via dissipational processes with rotation, while the blue halos are through accretion.

• 한국우주과학회:학술대회논문집(한국우주과학회보)
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• 한국우주과학회 2010년도 한국우주과학회보 제19권1호
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• pp.34.4-34.4
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• 2010

We present the properties of globular cluster systems for 10 early-type galaxies in low density environments obtained using deep images from the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Using the ACS Virgo Cluster Survey as a counterpart in high-density environments, we investigate the role of environment in determining the properties of their globular cluster systems. We detect a strong colour bimodality of globular cluster systems in half of our galaxy sample. It is found that there is a strong correlation between the colour and richness of globular cluster populations and their host galaxy luminosities: the less bright galaxies possess bluer and fewer globular clusters as also seen in rich cluster environments. However, the mean colour of globular clusters in our field sample are slightly bluer than those in cluster environments at a given galaxy luminosity, and the colour of the red population has a steeper slope with absolute luminosity. By employing the YEPS simple stellar population model, the colour offset corresponds to metallicity difference of $\Delta$[F e/H ] ~ 0.15 - 1.20 or an age difference of $\Delta$age ~ 2 Gyr on average, implying that GCs in field galaxies appear to be either less metal-rich or younger than those in cluster galaxies. Although we have found that galaxy environment has a subtle effect on the formation and metal enrichment of GC systems, host galaxy mass is the primary factor that determines the stellar populations of GCs and the galaxy itself.

• 천문학회보
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• 제45권1호
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• pp.62.2-62.2
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• 2020

Globular clusters(GCs) are found not only around galaxies (galaxy GCs), but also between galaxies in galaxy clusters (intracluster GCs; ICGCs). The ICGCs, which are not bound to any of cluster member galaxies, are governed by the galaxy clutster potential. ICGCs have been detected in the wide field of Virgo and Fornax galaxy clusters. However, previous surveys covered only a small fraction of Coma and Perseus. In this study we present a wide field survey of these two galaxy clusters, using Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam(HSC) archival images, covering a circular field with diameter of ~1.8 deg. We select ICGC candidates, by masking the images of bright galaxies and choosing point sources in the remaining area. We find thousands of ICGCs in each galaxy cluster. These ICGCs show a bimodal color distribution, which is dominated by blue GCs. We investigate spatial distributions and radial number density profiles of the blue and red ICGCs in each galaxy cluster. Implications of the results will be discussed.

• 천문학회보
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• 제43권2호
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• pp.40.2-40.2
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• 2018

NGC 5024 and NGC 5053 are among the most metal-poor globular clusters in the Milky Way. Both globular clusters are considered to be accreted from dwarf galaxies (like Sagittarius dwarf galaxy or Magellanic clouds), and common stellar envelope and tidal tails between globular clusters are also detected. We present a search for extra-tidal cluster member candidates around these globular clusters from APOGEE survey data. Using 20 chemical elements (e.g., Fe, C, Mg, Al) and radial velocities, t-distributed stochastic neighbour embedding (t-SNE), which identifies an optimal mapping of a high-dimensional space into fewer dimensions, was explored, and we find that globular cluster stars are well separated from the field stars in 2-dimensional map from t-SNE. We also find that some stars selected in t-SNE map are placed outside of the tidal radius of the clusters. The proper motion of stars outside tidal radius is also comparable to that of globular clusters, which suggest that these stars are tidally decoupled from the globular clusters. We manually measure chemical abundances for the clusters and extra-tidal stars, and discuss the association of extra-tidal stars with the clusters.

• 천문학회보
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• 제41권2호
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• pp.30.2-30.2
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• 2016

M104 (NGC 4594, the Sombrero) is an intriguing disk galaxy classified as an elliptical galaxy nowadays. It hosts a luminous bulge and a massive disk, but it is still mysterious how M104 acquired such peculiar structures. Globular clusters are an useful tracer to investigate the formation history of early-type galaxies. In this study we present a wide field imaging study of the globular clusters in M104. Using wide ($1^{\circ}{\times}1^{\circ}$) and deep ugi images of M104 obtained with the CFHT/MegaCam observations, we detect a large number of globular clusters. The color distribution of these globular clusters shows that there are two subpopulations: a metal-poor system and a metal-rich system. The radial number density of the metal-poor globular clusters shows a long tail reaching R ~ 30' (~ 80 kpc), indicating clearly the existence of a giant metal-poor halo in M104. This result is consistent with the previous studies on the dual halos of massive early-type galaxies. We will discuss implications of these results in relation with the formation history of M104.

• 천문학회보
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• 제39권2호
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• pp.51.1-51.1
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• 2014

The Virgo cluster, the nearest galaxy cluster, is dynamically young, hosting numerous globular clusters in galaxies as well as intracluster globular clusters (IGCs). We obtained spectra of globular cluster candidates in the core region of the Virgo cluster using Hectospec at MMT to study the kinematics of the globular clusters. The targets are located at a large range (50 kpc < d < 500 kpc) from M87, the most massive galaxy in Virgo. We distinguish the genuine globular cluster population in the targets by inspecting their spectral features and radial velocities. As a result, a significant number of IGCs are found. We present preliminary results of the kinematics of globular clusters in the Virgo core region.